Rafale Deal is Congress’ panacea for the 2019 general elections, probably why Rahul Gandhi hardly misses a chance to bring it up from time to time. But, on the other hand, Nirmala Sitharam and Amit Shah are also tongue tied on some questions around the issue.
In the recent past, a journalist asked a collective question from these two leaders that during the UPA era, as many as 126 Rafale fighter jets were on the cards but agreements have been made on only 36 till date. Why is it so? Are the remaining jet-deals cancelled? Nirmala and Shah drew silence on these.
Last year itself tender were again processed for fighter jets. Before this, tender was processed in 2007 during the UPA II era. In the 2007 tender it was decided that only 18 of the 126 jets will come in the fly-back condition from France. The remaining were to be manufactured in India itself. But in the NDA regime, all the 36 are to come straight from France.